The Country Scientist: Behind the scenes at scientific meetings

The exhibit hall at the Austin Convention Center was recently filled with the latest weather monitoring equipment during a meeting of the American Meteorological Society.

Scientific organizations and societies often hold conferences to share the latest research findings and discoveries. Since these meetings typically receive little media coverage, let's look behind the scenes and see what happens.

Formal presentations about new discoveries are the main theme of scientific meetings. Next in importance are poster presentations, the professional version of a sophisticated high school science fair.

Most scientific meetings also feature exhibit halls crammed with the latest scientific instruments, equipment and books. These exhibits always attract plenty of interest. That's good, since the fees paid by exhibitors help finance the meetings.

One of the chief values of scientific meetings is the face-to-face discussions and socializing that occurs between sessions, at posters and during meals. New ideas and opportunities are often discussed, as are research grants and new positions.

I've experienced this many times. My two research trips to Brazil and studies of seven major forest fires in the Western states were initiated during discussions with NASA scientists at scientific meetings.

Science isn't all that's discussed. After the daily sessions are over, scientists talk about their travel, families, hobbies and plans.

In recent years it's become increasingly common for scientific societies to acknowledge the environmental cost of their meetings. Some suggest that attendees buy carbon credits to offset the carbon dioxide expended during their travel to and from the meeting.

There is irony in this, for many of the climate scientists who predict dangerous consequences from adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere are among the worst offenders.

Several years ago I was asked to give a talk at a meeting in Hawaii that celebrated the 50th anniversary of carbon dioxide measurements at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory. My talk was about a book I was writing about the history of the observatory.

Before my talk, speaker after speaker bemoaned the increase in global temperature that they believe will accompany increased carbon dioxide emitted by cars, trucks, airplanes and power plants.

Only later in the meeting did a prominent speaker remind the audience that nearly all those present were brought to Hawaii on aircraft fueled by aviation gasoline. He also said that many scientists travel much more than the general public and they need to do something about this.

The audience of climate scientists became so silent that the dropping of a proverbial pin would have been clearly heard by them all.

Forrest Mims, an amateur scientist whose research has appeared in leading scientific journals, was named one of the “50 Best Brains in Science” by Discover Magazine. His science is featured at www.forrestmims.org. Email him at forrest.mims@ieee.org.